The following application is related to the field of sensors to detect life inside the confined space of a car.
Every year, people, children and pets die because they are left unattended inside vehicles where temperatures can dramatically increase or decrease, causing severe physical damage or death. These deaths are barely ever premeditated or the result of malicious intent. Most people step out of the vehicle knowing that they left life inside it but they believe they will do whatever they need to do quickly and be back before anything happens. Distractions like getting caught up in a conversation could cause a person to lose track of time, exposing the life inside the vehicle to greater harm.
Some new parents or pet owners are not accustomed to the daily routine a parent should have when it comes to checking the rear seat or area of the vehicle. The life inside the vehicle can fall asleep and not make any sounds or noise, making the parent or owner unaware that they have a pet or a baby inside the car. They leave the car and go to work or to do their daily activities and expose the baby or pet to dramatic changes in temperature, causing harm or death to the life.
There are also cases where caregivers are with seniors or disabled people. Because they are adults and not children, the caregiver can have the false impression that they can withstand dramatic changes in temperatures and will not be harmed by any changes, leaving them unattended inside the vehicle while they perform their daily task. But just like infants and pets, these changes can severely affect these adults, causing harm or death. Some of these people do not have the ability to perform actions like opening a door or lowering a window. Some might not be able to make a call or ask for help from bystanders.
An average of 30% of children that die inside vehicles are children that went inside a vehicle that was parked at their home or somewhere they had access to it, to get a toy or play inside, and became trapped inside it with no means to get out. This mostly happens when parents, believing they are doing the right thing, use child locks on vehicle doors so children sitting in the back of the vehicle can't open them from the inside. Unfortunately, these children that have access to the vehicles, go inside and shut the door and can't come back out. Because these children in most cases are unattended, parents don't know the child went outside and got inside the vehicle. Parents believe the child is inside playing and are not aware that the child has gone outside. These children inside the cars are exposed to dramatic changes in temperatures and die.
Many more die due to an increase of CO2 levels inside vehicles without people noticing. This mostly happens when people leave running vehicles inside closed garages with life inside. Because there is no ventilation, levels of CO2 increase and cause death. Unfortunately, a great amount of people believe that having the air conditioner on will somehow filter the CO2 gas and maintain harmless levels. But this is not true because vehicle air conditioning systems are not designed to filter CO2 gas, just to provide cold air by getting air from the outside and cooling it down without filtration. If the levels of CO2 are increasing outside or are already high, the air conditioning unit will suck in that air and pump it into the vehicle which will cause severe harm or death to the life inside.
Therefore, there is a need for a system that can detect life inside a parked vehicle and that helps prevent harm or death to live beings that cannot act on their own.